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Miami-Illinois Pronunciation and Spelling Guide

The following charts show the pronunciation for the Miami-Illinois spellings we have used on our site, as well as some alternate spellings that you may find in other books and websites. You may also like to visit our Algonkian homepage to see how Miami-Illinois relates to other languages from the Algonkian family.

˜Vowels

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
a		a	Like the a in father.
aa	a, â	a	Like the a in father, only held longer.
e		e	Like the a in gate.
ee	e, ê	e	Like the a in gate, only held longer.
i		i	Like the ee in peek.
ii	i, î	i	Like the ee in peek, only held longer.
o		o	Like the o in note.
oo	o, ô, 8	o	Like the o in note, only held longer.

˜Consonants

Character We Use:	Sometimes Also Used:	IPA symbol:	How To Pronounce It:
c	ch, č, tch, tj	t	Like ch in chair.
h		h	Like h in English hay.
k	g, c	k	Like the soft k in skate.
m		m	Like m in English moon.
n		n	Like n in English night.
p	b	p	Like the soft p in spill.
s	th	s ~ θ	Like s in sing. Some Miami speakers pronounced this sound like the th in thing instead.
sh	š, ch		Like sh in shy.
t	d	t	Like the soft t in star.
w	8	w	Like w in English way.
y	ï	j	Like y in English yes.

˜Stress

Miami-Illinois has less pronounced word stress than English does. In English, unstressed vowels are often reduced to schwas, which makes the stress sound very strong. (An example of this is the word "rebel." When "rebel" is a noun, the stress is on the first syllable and the word is pronounced REH-bəl. When "rebel" is a verb, the stress is on the second syllable and the word is pronounced rə-BELL.)

But in Miami-Illinois, vowels are pronounced normally regardless of stress. If you reduce an unstressed vowel to a schwa the way you would in English, you could sound like you are saying a completely different word, so be careful not to do this!

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